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The eyewitness

A reporter who witnessed the results of an extensive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has reported how local people came back with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan reported. Among them were those of police officers.

One of the bodies was found without a head - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Many also had what appeared to be stab wounds.

More than 120 people lost their lives in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the most lethal operation in the city.

The eyewitness explained that residents first notified him to the raid early on Tuesday by residents living in Alemão, who sent him messages telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness went to a local medical facility, where the victims were coming in.

Itan explained that the police prevented journalists from entering the affected area, where the operation was under way.

"Security forces formed a line and said: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, stated he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he remained until the next morning.

He reported that Tuesday night, local residents started looking the elevated terrain which divides Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who had been missing after the operation.

Community members living in Penha organized the discovered victims in a square - the documented evidence display the response of those present.

"The brutality of what occurred affected me a lot: the pain of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The official of Rio state stated that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 officers was aimed at stopping a criminal group called Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

At first, the Rio state government stated that "60 suspects and four police officers" were fatally injured during the action.

They have since said that early calculations shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has put the total number of people killed as 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, together with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per reporter a specialist, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, Red Command "functions as a network" with area gang leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "commercial associates".

The gang focuses mainly on drug trafficking, but also smuggles firearms, precious metals, fuel, beverages and tobacco.

Based on official reports, organization members are well armed and authorities stated that during the raid, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of the region, the government representative, characterized gang affiliates as criminal extremists and described the security forces who died during the operation as "heroes".

However, the count of people killed during the raid has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "horrified".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the state leader defended the police force.

"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He further explained that the events worsened as the individuals fought back: "It occurred of the counterattack they implemented and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The state leader further reported that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha had been "manipulated".

Through a message on online platforms, he claimed that particular individuals had been stripped of military-style attire that he stated they possessed "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force further reported that military attire, vests, and firearms" were stripped from the victims and showed footage seemingly depicting an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse